Haslett: Our base defense is ready for Chip Kelly’s offense “all day”

Haslett says that when his defense meets the Eagles’ offense in the Monday night opener, his players are going to be ready for the base defense to stay on the field “all day, against everything” and that he’s not worried about being able to substitute against the Eagles’ no-huddle offense.

When he was the head coach at Oregon, Kelly’s unconventional offensive approach gave opposing defenses fits, and there were often accusations that opposing teams faked injuries to slow the game down while playing Oregon. Haslett said he watched film of 23 or 24 Oregon games to prepare to face Kelly’s Eagles, and he said his defenses have never had a problem facing up-tempo offenses.

“It hasn’t been a problem to this point,” Haslett said. “We worked through training camp and I don’t think it will be an issue.”

We’ll have to see on Monday night if the Eagles’ offense can make it an issue.

I think the isolated quote comes off as arrogant, but the whole answer wasn’t.

The Redskins were one of the better teams in the league against up-tempo offenses over the last half of the season for one reason: London Fletcher.

London will be the man responsible for defensive calls and matchups if the Eagles are in hurry-up. He did an excellent job last year when Haslett silently ceded control to him (and, to an extent, Raheem Morris).

In all honesty, I’d be more concerned as a Redskins fan if the defensive calls were going to be entirely in Haslett’s Cover-0 lovin’ hands. The Eagles’ hurry-up may actually simplify things for the ‘skins D as long as they can get off the field.

floratiotime says:Sep 5, 2013 1:26 PM

Only the Giants will be totally confused by Chip Kelly … no matter how many times they play.

I would be more worried about the Eagles o-line keeping up with that offense with consistency. There’s a difference between being a 210lb young college 20-something and a 310lb NFL late 20/30something.

I see no reason why the Eagles aren’t going to be able to run the ball down the Skins throat. Eagles o-line will manhandle that front 7. That’s what people don’t realize about Chip’s offense, it’s hurry up, but it’s run heavy hurry up, which is what makes it unique

As an Eagles fan, I fully expect them to lose this game, because while I don’t think the Skins can stop the EAgles run game, I don’t think the Eagles can stop anybodys anything. Skins will probably win, but it won’t be because they shut the Eagles offense down. It will be because the Eagles D couldn’t stop most college teams

I’m not sure it’s as simple as thinking you’ll see the Oregon offense out there. Kelly doesn’t just do hurry-up. He also slows down… It’s just that he believes it’s easier to slow down instead of speeding up. It’s not just pace, either. Remember this is the NFL…Oregon didn’t have LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson, nor Michael Vick (as a fan, the latter concerns me…but he has played much better lately and seems better protected). So it’s Kelly’s scheme coupled with an offense that has much more talent than people realize. I’m pretty confident the offense is going to get it done most of the time. It may even be a juggernaut. It’s the DEFENSE that really concerns me. They still look pretty bad, even against teams like Carolina as Jacksonville.

All kidding aside, the Redskins are a dark horse for the Super Bowl because their defensive front seven should be much improved with the return of Orakbo and the rookie Brandon Jenkins from FSU who I thought was the best of their defensive line trio but slipped because he missed last season with an injury. What they need to be worried about is the secondary and hoping Griffin’s talent can overcome the little Shanahan added for him as far as passing weapons go.

“I see no reason why the Eagles aren’t going to be able to run the ball down the Skins throat. Eagles o-line will manhandle that front 7.”
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So..just for fun, the Redskins’ front 7 were top 5 in the NFL last year against the run. Without Orakpo.

Let’s also not forget what happened just a few weeks ago to your Pennsylvania brethren. The ‘skins front 7 absolutely mauled the Steelers starters in 1-on-1 matchups to the point that Steelers’ beat writers were openly praising Washington (and wondering if the sky was indeed falling).

This is not to say Philly won’t get some long runs. Just that if they do, it will be due to one of the Redskins’ rookies in the secondary (Rambo or Amerson) not keeping contain or making a tackle when they need to. The front 7, however, are at least equal to the task.

I would be more worried about the Eagles o-line keeping up with that offense with consistency. There’s a difference between being a 210lb young college 20-something and a 310lb NFL late 20/30something.

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Which college team has 210-pound offensive linemen? Because it certainly wasn’t any team in the FBS or even the FCS.

I see no reason why the Eagles aren’t going to be able to run the ball down the Skins throat. Eagles o-line will manhandle that front 7. That’s what people don’t realize about Chip’s offense, it’s hurry up, but it’s run heavy hurry up, which is what makes it unique

As an Eagles fan, I fully expect them to lose this game, because while I don’t think the Skins can stop the EAgles run game, I don’t think the Eagles can stop anybodys anything. Skins will probably win, but it won’t be because they shut the Eagles offense down. It will be because the Eagles D couldn’t stop most college teams
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Skins run defense was great last year. It’s only going to be better this year with reinforcements like Orakpo and Jenkins.

Redskins are an all-hype team, and an even worse organization. This is exemplified by the fact that they did not change their woefully disgusting turf until their only decent player got injured.

Second-rate organization all the way.

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Second rate organization? I’m not a Redskins fan but I wouldn’t be talking smack about anything being second rate considering your city isn’t able to handle two games in one night, which is why the game is in Denver tonight.

beckhruby says:Sep 5, 2013 3:33 PM

The Eagles are going to be terrible. They will be lucky to get 4 wins this year. Vick will be hurt before the bye week and Chip Kelly will realize his offense doesnt work in the NFL. Too bad he has to find out the hard way and even worse for Eagles fans they have to wait another 4 or 5 years for a new coach to come in and straighten things out.

How can he be ready for something if he doesn’t know what it is? This is gonna be more then just what Chip did at Oregon. That D doesn’t know whats coming at them, the Eagles are going to put a lot of yards and points up this Monday night.

This game will hinge on whether the Filthydelphia Iggles can keep the ball long enough to give their defense a breather. The Redskins will be content to run the ball, run the ball more, run the ball even more, and then run the ball again to make the defense of the Iggles stay on the field as long as possible.

The Iggles will need to score on every possession to make this a game. The ‘Skins know the way to stop an offense like that is to wear out their defense. And when the fat slobs of the Iggles are sucking wind, they are leaving gaping holes for our running backs to go 50-60 yards at a pop.

The Iggles will so vulnerable after mid season with their offense – the defense will be in near mutiny as they are on the field 40 minutes out of every game.

The Iggles will so vulnerable after mid season with their offense – the defense will be in near mutiny as they are on the field 40 minutes out of every game.
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So your team has the talent to cover Brent Celek, Zach Ertz and James Casey in 3 tight end sets? You have a CB that can keep up with DeSean Jackson? Will the skins be able to handle McCoy and Brown running it down their throats and in the end of the game have a fresh Chris Polk continue to pound at them? Don’t think Vick is going to smash your d? (he put up 60 on you already)… Give credit where credit is due. Eagles are finally on the right track. It’s going to be a close game and if you don’t believe that you are crazy.

The Eagles put up 26 total points against us in two games last year with the same players on the field just cause you dont huddle why would it be different?

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You mean when Foles went 32-48 (67%) for 345 yards, and the Eagles were at the Redskins’ 5 yard line when time expired in a 27-20 game? Yeah, you guys sure whooped up on a team that was missing Vick, Jackson, and 3/5 of the offensive line.

Why are folks bringing up the beatdown in 2010? Only 4 Skins remain from that squad (Trent Williams, Orakpo, Fletcher and Hall). McNabb, Portis, Cooley, Moss, Galloway, OLine, DLine are all gone. It’s not the right comparison. I’ve always believed that football teams change too much to compare years. 20 players change each year on average. Skins 45 – 10.

The Eagles put up 26 total points against us in two games last year with the same players on the field just cause you dont huddle why would it be different?
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You mean when Foles went 32-48 (67%) for 345 yards, and the Eagles were at the Redskins’ 5 yard line when time expired in a 27-20 game? Yeah, you guys sure whooped up on a team that was missing Vick, Jackson, and 3/5 of the offensive line.
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Yeah, that’s the one when Foles was sacked 5 times and finished with a 85.9 rating while RG3 finished 16/24 (67%) for 198/2 TD’s/ 1 INT with a 102.4 rating. But that was a road game. The better comparison is when you were at Washington like you will be Monday night. Skins outrushed Philly 169 to 80. RG3 finished 14/15 for 200 yards / 4 TD’s / 0 INT with a perfect 158.3 rating. Skins 45-10.

thirdistheworrd says:Sep 6, 2013 4:35 PM

somekat says:
Sep 5, 2013 1:36 PM
I see no reason why the Eagles aren’t going to be able to run the ball down the Skins throat. Eagles o-line will manhandle that front 7. That’s what people don’t realize about Chip’s offense, it’s hurry up, but it’s run heavy hurry up, which is what makes it unique
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While I think that the Eagles dominating the Redskins front seven (which was 5th in the league against the rush last year, despite missing it’s best pass rusher) is ridiculous; somekat actually brings up a pretty scary point about Philly’s ground game under Kelly.

Andy Reid will go down as my favorite coach in NFL history because he refused to give LeSean McCoy the ball– ever. I think if he had gotten 20+ carries a game, the Eagles could have won the division and gone on deep playoff runs several times over the last couple years. Even as a die hard Redskins fan, I’m willing to acknowledge that Shady could very well be the most talented halfback in the league, and the idea that Kelly might use him correctly is not something I want to think about.

thirdistheworrd says:Sep 6, 2013 4:54 PM

s0merand0mguy says:
Sep 5, 2013 3:58 PM
So your team has the talent to cover Brent Celek, Zach Ertz and James Casey in 3 tight end sets? You have a CB that can keep up with DeSean Jackson? Will the skins be able to handle McCoy and Brown running it down their throats and in the end of the game have a fresh Chris Polk continue to pound at them? Don’t think Vick is going to smash your d? (he put up 60 on you already)… Give credit where credit is due. Eagles are finally on the right track…
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Zach Ertz will be playing really solid coverage on himself, Brent Celek will continue being that guy I’m worried about going into the game, but then has an unimpressive performance for no clear reason, and James Casey would be a threat if your team also had Andre Johnson and Owen Daniels to complement him.

Washington has proven they can contain Maclin and Jackson at the same time, and I don’t think the addition of Chris Polk is going to be the catalyst that will push the (previously contained) Brown and McCoy over the top. Basically there’s not a huge personnel change on offense for Philadelphia, while the District has gotten much deeper on D, returned some key players, and made some major improvements on last year’s god-awful secondary.

And most importantly, of the eleven guys Vick put up 60 on, three will be starting for DC on Monday. I will acknowledge that Philly is heading in the right direction, I just think Washington has a head start and is already heading in the right direction even faster.